Amiens, France where the Gothic Amiens Cathedral, nearby medieval belfry and onetime home of incredible French author Jules Verne are all located is the home for Sort-of-Sludge rockers SYCOMORE (2016). Their Facebook bio states "The power trio hailing from Amiens, France, crosses influences from Extreme Metal to Noisy Sludge Rock, with a sound driven under a Torche aerial feeling brutalized with Carcass-alike blastbeats, Mastodon slashing themes lacerated by Unsane's swampy grooves." I couldn't have said it better myself, but let me have a wee toss at it, allons-nous?

"Over My Shoulders" track #1 has a coronavirus KORN groove, a killer little ditty that catches me off-guard via Guillaume's drumming that stretches into polyrhythm territory but without the real poly-rhythm syncopation dancing above the song's anchor beat ... more of an implied backbeat while the snare bangs out the songs punctuation in lyrical polyrhythm fashion.  Guillaume's inventive drumming totally shines on all of "Bloodstone.

"Forever Old" brings on a triple threat of blast beats, thrash guitar lines and metal growling vocals, but metal growling vocals with melody ... hmmm. Righteous. "Power of Romance" goes right for the throat SLAYER - style and like all these songs, does so with a not so mysterious amalgam of its constituent influences. "Knight Coat" crushes you with the verse then breaks down into chorus and refrains that barely let you take a deep breath. It is here that I notice - really notice - the vocals. I can understand Tim and Desta's English vocals better than most Anglo bands' spoken-singing english. Well now. "Knight Coat" is a standout cut with plenty of MASTODON neo-sludge thrash in the mix. "Fifty - Fifty" serves the dirty deuce doubling down on dynamic post metal volleys and their fault line ricochets - I hear TOOL, I hear SEPULTURA. And speaking of the masters from Brasil,  "Fireball" track #7 really sounds like old skool  SEPULTURA and SLIPKNOT.

"The Enemy" ends with gnarly sound FX that seem like metal bolts shaken in an empty coffee can ¡!rattlin' thusly to the last track called "The Web".  "The Web" has somewhat of an 80's Joey Belladona and the gang ANTHRAX vibe in the vocals and hints at a restrained PRONG vibe with the industrial squealy-pig guitar pull-offs bounding into dissonant chromatic chords. "Bloodstone" is a vivisected beast of ultimate 80's and 90's metal including its closely loved kin, all Venn diagram assembled into the SYCOMORE musical kaleidoscope. The vanilla limiter on the mix-master bus does the vocals some justice but it obscures other dynamic elements that makes the music totally engaging for me ... the sound issues forth from thy digital font and proceeds snout-down into a forced march to finale without appropriate air and patience to give it Le Groove Sacré, at least not to the golden ears of Dani Bandolier.

Actually, that is my only critical nit on "Bloodstone". The release is recorded well and mixed well but somewhere between the recording and analog sum mix the dynamics and pacing that lets music levitate were starved. "Bloodstone" would be a 9+ with a more patient pacing and a champion recording and stereo mastering job. The song material is bang-on and well worth repeated listening sessions. Nobody does it like the French, Dieu merci!

For you cool kids that want Le Groove Sacré sans cesse, check out my Spotify playlist which includes my reviewed bands!

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/272H3UBARsuksY3BqU0CzP?si=mCGfkFilSGC-D4P-v0_GBQ